#because i love attention validation

[aquanutart]

Nyaha~! Caught in my electroweb! ♡

[shannonsketches]

I grabbed a bunch of caps for that last post so here's a few more in my favorite genre of bejíta

[nkogneatho]

reminder that numbers and notes do not define your writing. i want you to stop limiting yourself. when you write freely, you don't care about how it will do on tumblr or how many notes it will get. you do it for yourself because you always wanted to write it. trust me on this because the best fic i've written is at 227 notes but a random headcanon got 13k. but you know what? in the end, i always find myself thinking about the reblogs and comments under the 227 one. so don't let the numbers get to your head. you are amazing.

[brazilian-whalien52]

Give me flawed characters, but please don't try to tone down or pretend that what they did is justified

[silverwhittlingknife]

I noticed something in a lot of your Dick and Tim fics. It's probably so obvious, but you always write that Tim is watching Dick. In your newest one, Tim's watching Dick, in The Return Tim's watching Dick, and you even write that Tim is always watching him. Is Tim trying to read Dick? Trying to understand? Or does he understand him by watching? What is he trying to figure out by watching Dick? What does that say about Tim? I really hope this is intentional lmao because I would be embarrassed. Maybe this is just something so obvious that I'm just getting now.

YES IT’S ON PURPOSE <333 Anon. Anon. I'm so sorry this answer took forever, but listen, this was a really delightful ask <333 I think about this a lot.  I really love origin stories—I like stories that resonate through a character’s history. 

And for me, a whole lot of what interests me about Dick and Tim is that theme of watching and being watched. Seeing and being seen.

"Watch me on the trapeze, Tim. I'm going to do my act...'specially for you." | "Timmy, don't look." | "I turned away... I couldn't watch. Then I heard you crying and I turned back... I'm sorry, Dick. I didn't want to hurt you by telling you all this." Dick's watching me. Gauging my reactions. (Tim watching Dick watching Tim!) | "I'm taking off the blindfold." "No!" | "I can't see him. You can't see him. But I know Robin. And Robin's always there when you need him." | I love that kid. Too much to let him see me like this. (But Tim spots him anyway.)

Spotlights and lighthouses and cameras and photographs. Blindness and vision and masks and detective work and trust.

I'm going to try to be coherent about this but it's gonna be incoherent sdfsf BUT I'M GOING TO TRY so. Below the cut, a really long grab-bag of my rambling on vision and watchers and watching.

Tim + watching / Dick + being watched / different dynamics

Tim's origin story

Being watched goes with vulnerability/exposure

Incomplete list of moments with Dick and Tim and vision

Tim + watching

The first time we see Tim's face in LPoD: a close-up on his eyes looking for Dick, a close-up on his eyes at the moment that he sees Dick, a pullback to his face at the moment of recognition, a pullback to his face + his camera (you could maybe even argue that Tim comes into existence at the moment that he sees Dick, like, conceptually. the act of seeing is his defining characteristic. it is the thing that makes his character happen. he is the kid who's watching.)

Tim's a very vision-centric character: he's first introduced as a camera, then as a pair of binoculars, then as a pair of eyes. His whole backstory is about watching: watching Dick's parents die, watching Dick on TV, watching Batman and Robin. I've grabbed a few panels above with Tim watching Dick but there are so many more. His major deductions are all vision-based: he sees Dick-the-acrobat and later recognizes Dick-as-Robin; he sees Bruce-in-the-past and recognizes him as Bruce-of-our-time; the climactic moment in Red Robin is about going into a dark cave with a torch so he can see what's there.

And he's a detective. He pries into secrets. He analyzes people. He's a worrywart and a fusser who always wants to understand what's going on with other people. In a lot of those panels where Tim's watching Dick, his inner monologue is busy deducing Dick's emotions and trying to psychoanalyze him. Tim's caring and watchful and intuitive... but all those qualities also make him very very intrusive.

Dick + being watched

Dick performing acrobatics for Bruce, Donna, and Tim in Detective Comics 38 (his first appearance), New Teen Titans 16, Batman 441, and Nightwing 88 (where he reflects he's glad to be back in the hot glare of the spotlight)

Dick's a detective too, of course - Tim deliberately mirrors Dick, both in-universe and out-of-universe. But also Dick's a performer who loves being watched and also wants to control how he's seen. He gets a kick out of showing off, making puns, kicking ass, taking names, and he gets a kick out of having an appreciative audience. And he's got a kind of yearning for recognition - it hurts, when Bruce won't look at him, and in fights with Bruce, Babs, Roy, he'll often bring up the past, trying to get them to acknowledge a shared history.

At the same time, he's a very private person who withdraws and hides and pushes people away when he's upset. Right before Tim shows up, Dick's just ghosted the Titans because he's having emotional turmoil and doesn't want to have it in front of them, and they're trying to respect his wishes... but that solitude doesn't last long, because then Tim tracks him down. Tim will do this again when Dick's having an emotional crisis and trying to avoid everybody in Nightwing 110.

Possible dynamics

Tim watches Dick in Robin 11, while silently analyzing Dick's anxieties about Two-Face

"The watcher and the person being watched" is a dynamic that really interests me, partly because it can be so complicated?

You can see in Dick and Tim their very first roles: enthusiastic performer and the enthusiastic audience member. Dick likes to perform and show off and entertain; Tim likes to watch; those are roles they both easily slide into and they have a lot of fun together! But also you can look at the harsher side: the crime victim and the voyeur, the amateur photographer and the guy who hates being photographed. Dick's intensely private about his vulnerabilities; Tim's intrusive and watchful and constantly trying to figure out how other people tick. Sometimes Tim's the caring friend who watches Dick closely, reads him well, understands him; sometimes he's the nosy mini-detective who pries into Dick's secrets. And that's just two different ways of describing the same thing!

One of the things that kinda fascinates me about Dick and Tim's relationship is that in a lot of ways it's built on a bunch of low-key boundary violations. A lot of their early relationship is driven by Tim's desire to know more about Dick vs. Dick's reluctance to get close to anyone from Gotham; Tim's often out-of-line, but without his pushiness, it's hard to see how they would've developed a relationship at all. Later on, their friendlier relationship is marked by Dick teasing and low-key bullying Tim; it's pretty obvious that Tim isn't actually bothered by this, but it does involve Dick ignoring whatever Tim's claiming he doesn't like ("Quit it!" "Shh").

And one of the aspects of those boundary-violations is that Tim has a habit of witnessing things that Dick would prefer that nobody see. Tim's a witness to Dick's first and most miserable tragedy; he sees the aftermath of some of Dick's fights with Bruce; he's there when Donna dies. And he's sharp and observant and analytical, and I like to imagine this as being something Dick's not entirely comfortable with.

When Dick first meets Tim, it's before he's learned to wear a mask. And Tim spends a lot of time trying to see through Dick's masks, and he's pretty good at it, and a lot of that prying comes from love and care, because one of the ways that Tim shows love and respect and admiration is by trying to absorb absolutely everything about you, like a little sponge. But there's also something unsparing and even threatening about the search for the truth of someone else. It can be comforting or threatening, to know someone's watching you.

And I love how all that complexity is wrapped up in Tim's origin story? Both the giddy childish "Watch me on the trapeze" and then the awful grim reality of what Tim actually sees as a result and then the difficult connection when Dick and Alfred finally get Tim to explain how he knows their secret identities.

Tim's origin story

Tim (recounting his origin story in LPoD): My parents held me back as the thing moved to you. I cried out to warn you. (Two panels where we see just Tim's eyes, as he watches a crying Dick. He sees Batman approach and start trying to comfort Dick.)

I think fiction sometimes presents "being understood / seen / known" as an uncomplicatedly good thing, and there's nothing wrong with that! But I like complications, and I like the way Tim's origin story frames that moment of witnessing as difficult and fraught. Tim doesn't want to tell Dick how he knows their secret identities because he thinks it'll hurt Dick to know it: I don't want to hurt you, Dick, and I'm really afraid I might. And he's not wrong. It is painful; it does hurt; it's not something Dick's happy to know.

Dick's a very private person, and there's a painful intimacy to Tim's origin story - it's not Tim's fault he was there, but at the same time, it's not like Dick chose to have the most traumatic moment of his life on stage in front of an audience of strangers, you know? It's kind of a violation. In NTT/NT/Nightwing, Dick's pretty violently hostile to photographers, and he's intensely private about trauma in general, and I like to imagine this as partly a reaction to that foundational trauma of losing the most important people in his life and also doing it publicly.

And Tim's part of that audience. And he sees the worst part, the part that Dick can't talk about. He sees the bodies and the blood. He has nightmares about it for years. He hears Dick crying and sees him holding onto his parents' bodies. Not at all the kind of first impression Dick would want to make. Not at all the kind of person he wants to be seen as. And that understanding can be painful, because it's so close to the bone, and when Tim's just a stranger, it's upsetting, because Tim knows things that Dick would never have chosen for him to know. Their few conversations about it are awkward partly because Tim's thirteen and awkward... but at the same time, it's not Tim's fault so much as the situation! There's no way for Tim to talk about what he saw that wouldn't be uncomfortable for Dick.

... And yet, and yet. Tim's also one of the last people to see the Graysons alive. He sees Dick and his parents together; he even takes a picture with them. He remembers the whole thing so vividly he'll recognize Dick's somersault years later. He sees the grief. And so I think of that connection as kind of a metaphor for witnessing. Tim sees these things and they become real; Dick can't hide from them; in the act of being seen he's caught, he's in a spotlight, all the grief made real. You can't hide, that way. And Tim's got this unforgiving memory; he won't ever forget; he won't ever stop knowing.

But then, too: Dick's seen, he's known. Even at the very beginning, when Tim doesn't know enough to understand what he knows, he knows the important things.

So that shared memory is a barrier and a bond between them. It can be a source of discomfort or a source of comfort. And that's how I think about Tim watching Dick in general - it's complicated, and sometimes Dick's glad of it, and sometimes he resents it, and also it just is, it's a fact of Tim, that Tim watches. It's notable when he's not watching, when he's turned away.

Being watched goes with vulnerability/exposure

So I'm going to talk about the fraught feeling of being watched more in a little bit, but first: I think it's fascinating that Dick likes screwing around with games where Tim can't see!

Here's Nightwing 25 - Dick's come up with the idea of trainsurfing while blindfolded:

Tim: Are you sure this is such a good idea? Dick: Shh! Listen. Tune into the changing sounds and - Tim: I'm not so - Dick: JUMP!

Here's Robin 49 - clambering through a tunnel into No Man's Land:

Dick: Hard not to think about the river. All the water above us. And bugs. This tunnels' probably full of 'em. And rats. Big ones. Big blind rats with teeth as long as -

Here's Gotham Knights 9 - ambushing Tim in a sorta game of hide-and-seek:

Dick: Gotcha! Tim: Augh!

I feel like mmm I don't want to emphasize power dynamics too much because it's easy to overplay it BUT when I think about headcanons it's interesting to me to think about how maybe when Tim can't see, Dick's more in charge / in control, and so he feels more comfortable and less vulnerable, and that's often when he's most relaxed and playing around the most?

Whereas the moments when Tim's looking at him are often a bit more fraught, as here in Lonely Place of Dying:

Tim: I'm sorry, Dick. I really am. I didn't want to hurt you by telling you all this. Dick... Dick: It's all right, Tim. No matter how old you are, there are some things you never forget. Or get over. (Silent panel: Tim's watching Dick as Dick turns away and stares into the window.)

Or here in Nightwing 6, when Tim wakes him up from a nightmare:

Dick (internally, imagining a kid falling): He shouts to me. He always shouts to me. I never hear what he says. Tim: Nightwing! Wake up!

Or here in Gotham Knights 26, when Bruce is accused of murder:

(Silent panel where Tim's watching Dick.) Tim: I'm sorry. This must be hard for you. Dick: Me? Why? Tim: Well, I mean, it'd be one thing if we really knew he was innocent, but as it is - Dick: Wait, what? Stop right there. What are you saying, Tim?

Here's Tim spotting him before he can get away in Nightwing 110:

Dick (watching Tim from a distance, internally): Still, Timmy played it through nice and clean. Disarmed the perps, protected and avoided the cops. Kept any civilians from getting shot. God, I love that kid. Too much to let him see me like this. Tim: Hey! (appearing on the roof above him, fake-cheerful) You weren't gonna leave without saying hi, were you? Dick (looking away, very quietly): Hey, Timmy. Tim: Look at you, man! Back on both feet! Think you're done stopping bullets with your body for a while? Dick: Hope springs eternal. (Silent panel with Tim watching Dick, who's turned away.) Tim: You okay, Dick? Dick: I'm fine. Tim: Well, where're you staying these days? Dick: With some people.

Of course, sometimes Tim's watchfulness is frustrating but also a comfort, as in Detective Comics 874:

Tim (watching Dick, who's looking away): Are you listening to me, Batman? I'm saying the gas the Dealer used on you was powerful stuff. Dick: I'm fine, Red Robin. Besides...you're here now. Tim: You're not fine. And with or without me, you shouldn't be out on patrol ye - Dick: Sshhh. Here they come.

(Later in the comic, Dick mentally concedes that Tim's right that he hasn't really recovered from the gas, and Tim saves him from drowning when he's hallucinating. So Dick feels kind of exposed by the scrutiny, but also... he invited Tim along, so there's trust there, too - Tim's perceptiveness can be a good thing, too, when things are serious.)

Incomplete summary of moments with Dick and Tim and vision

I think I already mentioned a lot of these but here is my LIST

almost the first thing that Dick says to Tim is "watch me on the trapeze, Tim" and then Tim does and he basically never stops watching;

Tim watches Dick's parents die and watches Dick sobbing on-stage and watches him on TV and recognizes him by seeing a particular trick because he's dreamed about Dick doing the trick in his recurring nightmares about that night;

in New Titans 65 which is their very first team-up comic after Tim's origin, Dick's training pre-Robin Tim and gives him a test about watching for details and later Tim's takeaway is "I saw how [the Titans] listened to you";

there's a moment in Showcase '93 12 which is just Tim watching Dick and analyzing what's going on with him and there's another moment in Prodigal which is the same thing;

in Nightwing 6 Tim sneaks into Dick's apartment and hides in the dark and Dick spots him and tackles him; one of their most important bonding comics is Nightwing 25, where Dick insists on blindfolding him to get him to rely less on vision; when they sneak into No Man's Land they're in the dark and Tim can't see again and Dick's teasing him;

there are multiple moments when Tim can't see Dick for a bit and panics about his safety, in Nightwing 25, in No Man's Land, in Transference, in Bruce Wayne: Murderer;

Tim's there watching when Dick's wedding to Kory falls apart and he's there watching when Bruce and Dick fight and he's there watching when Donna dies and he's watching when Dick and Bruce swing together on the night before Infinite Crisis, and when Dick goes down and almost dies in Infinite Crisis we cut to Tim watching and seeing it happen and screaming;

there are multiple moments which are just silent panels of them staring at each other trying to figure out what's going on with each other or having a stand-off - in Bruce Wayne: Murderer, in Resurrection, in Red Robin;

in the aftermath of Donna's death there's a panel where Dick's watching Tim from a distance and not approaching;

in the aftermath of Blockbuster Dick spends half the comic just staring at Tim from a distance and hiding himself because "I love that kid - too much to let him see me like this," but Tim sees him anyway and chases him down and then they lie to each other and *ranting* LISTEN TO ME the whole comic is about Dick trying to AVOID being SEEN both literally but also METAPHORICALLY AND --!!!

(the only thing i'm even as halfway obsessive about for them is the heights thing because also there are a bunch of moments involving falling or Tim being anxious about heights and worried that he'll fall or Dick will fall)

In conclusion

Consider the progression in all these moments where Tim's watching an upset Dick and worrying about him!! From reaching out instinctively-but-pointlessly when he's too far away in the LPoD flashback, to almost reaching out in LPoD but hesitating, to putting a hand on Dick's back to walk him back to the Cave in Gotham Knights 10, to physically dragging him clear of the water in Batman: Black Mirror!

In conclusion I don't have a conclusion but basically YES, "watching Dick" is a core Tim characteristic as far as I'm concerned, and Tim watches Dick a lot and that can mean all kinds of things from admiration to nosy intrusiveness to worry to care to gratitude to trying-to-figure-out-what's-going-on-with-him, and sometimes Dick's resentful and sometimes he's relieved and sometimes he's playful and sometimes it's a mix of all those feelings.

And at first it's always Tim watching Dick, but later you've got Dick watching Tim too, and there's that moment where Dick's secretly watching him fight but Tim spots him in Nightwing 110 and there's a silent panel where Dick's watching him in Resurrection and at the very end of Robin there's a scene where Dick's secretly watching him fight but Tim spots him and in the very last issue of Red Robin Dick's watching the end of the confrontation with Boomerang and in Prodigal Dick's the one who notices his face is bruised and aaaaaaah

Anyway I think they're neat <3

[marrfixated]

(More thoughts and drafting! Some weird formatting I know but it was all one block in my notes)

Emma is doing just fine. Average. It’s really not so bad.

She’s just been dealing with a lot of change. And with too many things not changing.

Which is… an odd thing to struggle with.

Because she likes change. Daunting challenges. The unpredictable. Doing new things every day and never being scared of them. And she likes independence.

She had thought so, at least.

After the show, she had been hit in the face with just how… isolated she was. She had only had two friends before the first season, but she had left them behind. Her mother wasn’t doing the best, and she didn’t have any nearby family.

She found herself laying in her bed in the middle of the day most of the time, scrolling through her contacts and old conversations.

Or scrolling through her comments on TikTok.

A few weeks ago, she had tried some stunt involving a motorcycle and an inflatable pool. She probably wouldn’t have messed it up if her hands weren’t trembling.

(She had forgot to check the breaks, and wasn’t sure if they were working.)

(They were.)

The blood dripping down her face and the gash in her lip didn’t sting as much as it did watching the video.

She looked ridiculous, and she probably always did. It was better when she had someone else to do it with. Maybe she was losing her touch.

She didn’t post the video.

She turned back to dancing instead, which did feel less embarassing, despite the constant mocking feedback. Sure, the jokes were “funny”, but she didn’t care about any of it. She didn’t feel the rush, she wasn’t planning every day, and she wasn’t known or loved for anything.

Except for what she lost.

And, the show, to an extent.

-Ugh, she misses the show. She shouldn’t, but as stupid as it sounds, she really did. She missed doing crazy things and talking to people. Having a chance of winning. Beating everyone. Being cheered on. It wasn’t always great, but at least it was something. She misses doing something.

And she really misses Bowie. She missed Bowie, but she knows better than anyone that she can’t go back to that. They just- have better things to do now. He probably does.

He’s got Raj- which is great! And she’s happy for him! She’s happy for everyone. For Wayne, however he’s doing, for Julia, despite everything.

And Caleb. For having Priya.

Emma is jealous that Bowie gets to have someone.

Emma is jealous that everyone else gets to have someone.

Emma is jealous that, unlike everyone else, winning the show probably wouldn’t have made her any happier.

She isn’t sure what would.

[heph]

Hey, I remember you mentioning on your IG something about two types of popular artists and one being good at social media and the other being good at art or something like that (I can't really remember lol). But it got me thinking, any tips for how to be good at social media? Cuz I'm certainly not even after posting art for six years lol

Heya!

What I meant by that is that there are traits that allow you to grow on social media, and traits that determine what a highly skilled artist is, and those traits do not always necessarily overlap.

I've seen so many amazing artists that post artwork that blow my head off, and yet they don't have many likes. On the other hand, some artists at the same skill level who draw more popular things will get way more attention.

That is not to say that either is the correct way to create art, but there is definitely a formula to social media that is in play.

There are a lot of posts about how to grow a social media account, particularly on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram art spheres, and imo you really need to examine what you want from your art before jumping into social media mode

The stuff you create to pander to social media might not be art that you want to create at all - I'm lucky, because I am less artist more storyteller, and what I enjoy is telling jokes and silly stories to liven up people's moods :] this, of course, conveniently does well on social media. On a personal note, I have a history of being a recluse and not connecting well with people, and art is my way of trying to communicate my feelings, one way or another.

So of course, if you draw for any reason other than my own, my approach to art and it's relation to social media might be inappropriate for you.

All that being said, if u take a look at those "get big on social media" videos they always cite the same few points... And you can look into that, for sure, but this video sums up how I feel about all that.

I spent like 20 minutes drafting words after the above paragraph, but I really ended up regurgitating sentiments from the video... So really don't listen to me, listen to that video

EDIT:

I just realised I didnt actually answer the question with my anecdotal experience, so here's a list of things I did

1. Posted like 3 doodles a day on social media

I did this for 6 months on a side account on Twitter recently and got the account to 11k followers... And I did this for 3 months on Instagram a few years ago and I think got 3.5k followers. Of course, do not spam maliciously and make sure your art is still of good quality, but for those artworks I posted quickly, I did not colour, and mostly did clean sketches. This also trains you in the matter of line confidence haha. Again, this worked for me because of my set of circumstances (love for the media, want to tell stories, simple art style)

2. Focus on my favourite aspects of media

This helps with respect to burnout - kinda hard to burnout when you love what you're making! For me, it's character interactions and comics. I want to see my blorbos kiss and if I'm not the one drawing it who will?!

3. Interact with people

People eat up work that they can interact with. A choose your own story situation, one of those like/rt to strip a character 😭 those do numbers for a reason.

Additionally, if you post stuff people love, people will respond to it with comments, maybe their own headcanons, adding on to the work... I've gone into long looong Twitter thread conversations with people who added onto my ideas that I threw up onto the screen and I think it's also a nice thing to do to respond to positive comments haha... I'm not very good at this (read: bad at communication)

I think that's the key points... Hope this helps!

[thedrotter]

Re:Kinder Fun fact time!! Did you know? 😊

Yuuichi's theme song (the one that often accompanies his entrances with "Vamos Cantar!"), 新しい夏のナナ, is not in any latin language such as Spanish or Portuguese, despite its lyrics sounding as such. It's actually in Hanamogera, which to put it simply is nonsense speech based on japanese syllables. So the song's lyrics are essentially gibberish meant to imitate the sound of latin music! 😊

It is listed as such in the source site for the song, oo39.com, where the song can be found as "YS068" in the hanamogera category.

Additional fun fact! The song can also be found in Spotify as Vien Nana by Oo39.com themselves alongside a few other select songs from the site. So you can properly enjoy the song on the platform without having to import it from your local files.

Those are the fun Re:Kinder related fun facts for today... Use them to entertain your friends at parties ! ☺️

[kanene-yaaay]

To Catch a Hero’s Giggle

Alternative Title: Golden Child

Kanene’s Notes: This fic is heavily inspired by This Headcanon that is basically that Hero has a natural quiet laughter and everyone likes to pretend that they ‘stole’ his giggles while tickling him

Warnings: This one has a lot of tickles dfghjhgfgh. Angst with a happy ending. Hurt/Comfort. Raspberries. Lee!Hero and Ler!Sunny&Ler!Kel. Around 3.500 words.

[~*~]

The top is a lonely place.

Actually, thinking about where he is - in the highest spot - feels weirdly frustrating. This numb feeling as he stared at the good grade on his newest text, the lack of even a small sparkle of proudness or relief at knowing that he did it again, the neutral tune of his face, the constant tiredness on his bones… none of this felt like the top. Like the best version of himself, like the amazingness and peak of development that he could achieve.

Yet, that was what everyone around him told that it was his place. The top of his class. The top of the students. The top of his school.

Hero had listened to it for years now, he had even fought with all his power for the title. And still he wondered when it would ever begin to make sense for him, to mean something for him.

(He wondered when he would look at the mirror with the same shine of pride and trust that his teachers and parents had when talking to him.)

"Hey, Hero! How did you do?" 

Hero didn't grimace, because that was his classmate and she was nice. In any other and every other situation that didn’t involve school or grades, she was really nice. 

Unluckily for him, that was not the case today.

"How did you do?" A smile, a curious look. Usually that would be enough to trail the attention away.

"I got a D! Not as brilliant as you, I guess, but still enough to pass so yeah!"

"D is still a good grade. I am glad you got it!"

"Hm mm, but still you're not running away from the question. Tell me, what did you get?"

His hand began scratching the back of his head, fingers tangling in his hair. "Ah, nothing much, just a B." He chuckled in good humor.

"Nothing much? Hero, I would commit crimes for your grades! Uuuurg, and you don't even look happy for it, too. Come on, I would be shooting fireworks if I was you right now. Is being that good just so normal for you, golden student, that you don't even care about them anymore?"

Words appeared and died in his tongue. A mix of "You’re not me" and "but I don't feel happy" and "Please don't call me that". Instead, he smiled and opened his mouth to say something (anything).

Scratch, scratch, scratch. He could almost feel the spotlight. It was starting to irritate, burn his skin.

Another classmate cut them.

"Hey, hey, Heroooo, my man!" That was June. She was nice and the arm that he slipped across his shoulders in a half hug made warmth spread across the touch. She was nice. "Sorry for cutting you short but I really need you to explain the subject of our Literature test like right now." 

His eyes ran at the clock above the white board on the room. It was lunchtime, their literature test would be in the period right after it.

"Of course!" Smile. Suddenly, he was back at his comfort zone, with notes and books and subjects that don’t make any sense, but when you start to stare at them long enough with a tilted head you can start to see the connections. "Do you have any questions in mind? What was the part you got the most confused?"

In a blink his own literature notebook was on his hands, pages being fastly flipped as the boy looked for where his notes were. 

Silence. The arm slipped from his shoulders.

Hero looked up. June laughed, with a tiny drop of awkwardness and bit her thumb with a dangerous smile as she avoided the other's eyes.

"Everything."

Hero stopped. Blinked. There was a light tremble in his words.

"The seven chapters about art schools?" 

"Yep." She popped the p. "And the historical context. And the authors. And characteristics." Hero must have shown a glimpse of the dread he was feeling inside because soon June was holding his hand and kneeling on the not-so-clean-and-where-did-all-this-ink-even-came-from-floor. "Please, Hero, please! I know that I haven't studied anything but you're so great at teaching. I will owe you that one, please!"

"Ok! Ok!" Hero fumbled a bit with his own hands, feeling a mix of relief to take over his movements. No one should be so desperate to get his help. And how could he even say no to her? "It's fine, it is a very long subject but we have one hour before the class so I think we can cover a bit more than the basics." 

His face became more serious, determinated eyes. "Get your book. We're going to meet on the tree next to the entrance, alright?"

"Perfect!" June jumped in the same place. "Thank you so much, Hero!"

"It is fine." And it really was, Hero loved to teach. But…"I am always happy to help, but next time, please ask me a day or two before the test." 

"Of course, dude!" And she was already out the door. 

Deep sigh. Hero looked at the clock. Actually, he took like one week to study all that stuff, however, maybe if he got the main historical events and explained how those affected the literature, architecture and worldview of each age, perhaps he could summon the main points of everything.

Another minute ticked by. Hero got his sandwich from his bag, already opening and taking a bite. Today was going to be a long day.

At least June was truly nice.

(...)

The thing about having Sunny as a neighbor is that sometimes he was just… there.

Hero, in his spot laid on the floorboards of his room - having fallen there after coming back from school and realizing that Kel was still out with the basketball group, - stared wide eyed at the deep dark eyes that curiously peaked at him from above. As soon as his brain clicked and he recognized the boy, however, his fast heartbeats began to calm down.

“Sunny!” He didn’t really want to get up, the cold floor soaking through his clothes and resting on his skin making all his muscles relax and keeping his mind from floating away. Still, he sat and turned around to stare at the younger with a pleasant quirk of lips. “Did you come to see Kel? He is still at his basketball practice. I am sure that you can still find him if you go to the park.”

Sunny looked back at him, his face was less pale and his movements less sluggish. It was good to actually see him more often, see the light come back bit by bit in his eyes. The same attentive eyes that fixed their attention at the taller boy, the silence stretching across the room before Sunny seemed to arrive at a conclusion, lightly nodding his head before popping himself on the floor right at his side.

He pulled his knees up and rested his chin on them and Hero opened his mouth, wanting, but not knowing how to explain that he really wasn’t a fun company right now.

“Heh. Sunny, I-”

A hand rested on his. The cold fingers patting his hand twice before a phone screen was basically shoved in his face.

Hero blinked, chuckled and adjusted himself to see what was on the device. It was a video of a small duck shaking himself and walking excitedly behind its owner with a light and quick ‘pap pap pap’.

He smiled, much more naturally this time, and pretended to not notice how thick with emotion was his voice. “This is cute.”

Sunny nodded, seeming content with himself, before turning back to watch something else. Probably more videos with ducks.

“Right.” Hero mumbled for anyone in particular. Deep breath. “Alright.”

Something hot ran across his cheek. And another. And another. And another.

It felt like burning, almost as bad as his eyes. Almost as annoying as the itch on his nose, the dryness of his throat.

Still, the floorboards were cold. They were brown and smooth and filled with dents wherever the tip of his fingers passes, result of years and years of both him and Kel having more accidents than the normal amount for two boys with inexplicable clumsy tendencies.

Still, there was a cold hand on his and the sound of puppies ‘yip yap yap’ and ducks ‘pap pap pap’ in the air smiling at it felt a bit easier.

 Breathe.

Hero stared at the ceiling for a pieces of minutes, letting himself slowly close his eyes as his breathing got slower. 

What a long day.

(...)

He opened his eyes, rubbing them and yawning as the consciousness slowly creeped back to his senses. His gaze travelled to the window, confirming that it was still afternoon and that possibly didn’t doze off for more than an hour. 

Stretching on the floor, the older one realized that Sunny was still there, unfolding from the tight ball he usually imitated when sitting down and answering his gaze with his own curious eyes.

Hero smiled.

Sunny was a good friend.

His smile quickly turned into a grin.

“Sunny. There is something on your face, come here for a second.”

One blink, two blinks, Sunny came closer. Hero tried to not let his plan ( or mischief) show too much on his face.

“Just a little bit closer.”

He opened his arms, Sunny moved to attend his request. Hero’s arms got closer and…

Bam!

*HERO captures you in a hug!*

With a squeak, Sunny trash for a second before realizing what was happening and letting himself fall on the floor with a small smile, amused titters making his shoulders bounce for a bit before he let himself be hugged like a teddy bear with no complaints.

“Thank you, Sunny. You’re a really good friend.” 

The younger boy didn’t answer him, but it didn’t matter. The silence that fell on them wasn’t in any way awkward. There was no need for words when all of his acts and little expressions showed how much Sunny cared.

Hero only kept him in the embrace for a couple more of seconds, giving the boy a quick squeeze before letting him go as a dazzling smile took over his face. Now it was time for him to show a bit how he cared about the younger too.

That was enough sulking for one day.

“Kel still hasn't arrived, huh? What if we both play a game then? I am sure we still have that old Spaceboy videogame where you can race his-”

“Another game.”

The voice was low, but for the way that made him immediately stop right on his tracks could be the loudest shout to ever exist. Hero tried to not let the immense wave of pride that filled his chest everytime Sunny decided to express his opinion show in his expression.

“Do you want to play another game?”

Sunny nodded, lightly pushing Hero’s shoulder so he would be laying down again. Hero let himself fall with an amused light in his face.

How could he deny that boy anything, really.

“What game is it?”

Sunny shrugged, as if not sure, he didn’t wonder about it too much, however, the shorter quickly calling his attention by lightly shaking his hands and lifting them. 

Hero tilted his head, confused and still amused. Kids nowadays are so fun.

Sunny repeated the movement.

“Ah!” Finally, it clicked. Hero lifted his own arms. Was this a new version of Worm? He and Kel used to play it all the time as kids, even though his mother never seemed excited in seeing her two sons wiggling around the floor like two invertebrate beings. “Like this?”

The younger nodded, patting the arms for a good measure and a clear message of ‘stay’.

Then he lifted his own hands again, Hero watched attentively, ready to follow the instructions to the next step of the game.

That was the moment Sunny shoved his hands on his sides.

The sound that came out of his mouth was a half gasp and a half squeal, arms immediately crashing down in an attempt to catch and stop the onslaught of squeezes and pinches that were being delivered all across the ticklish skin.

“Suhuhunny!!” As quick as the giggling came, it went away, being immediately replaced airy titters and low, almost inaudible laughter, especially as Sunny spidered his nimbly fingers upwards in order to escape the hands that tried to pry him away, each prod and poke on his sensitive ribs making the older one arch his back and let out a single high pitched squeak that made his entire face explode in warmth. “W-why!”

Sunny only hummed contently, letting his hands rest cozy and snug on his highest ribs, the tip of his fingers just scratching the tip of his armpits while the thumbs kneaded the ribs with energy. Soon enough more and more loud high pitched squeals and squeaks began breaking the quietness of his laughter only for Hero to descend right back and his hysterical airy giggles all over again, arms clued on his sides, torso squirming from a side to another in lazy, futile wiggles that did nothing to actually stop the sudden tickle attack.

“Got you.” Sunny’s voice was as calm as ever, with plenty of a playful joy blossoming on it freely. “I will steal all of your giggles for myself…” 

His attack went back to his sides, however instead of maddening squeezes or killer pinches, Sunny simply laid his hands on the skin and vibrated. 

Hero jumped, merely wheezing before inaudible snickers that made his shoulders bounce with giddiness bubbly right out of his lips.

“Got them. They’re mine now.” Hero almost wished that his laughter was as loud and boisterous as Kel’s just so it wouldn’t be so easy to listen to Sunny’s teasy remarks, which weren’t even that teasy in the first place, lacking the smugness Aubrey had during her tickle attacks or Kel’s mischievous pokes of fun, but his words right now sounded just so sincerely happy that all that Hero could do at the this was let out an embarrassing snort that made his cheeks even more warm, the gigantic smile plastered on his face getting wobblier.

Especially as he heard a voice from his doorway.

“Are we tickling Hero?”

The immediate cry of “No!” that flew from his voice was quickly subdued by the fact that the younger violin player decided to change his technique to a skilled scribbling that concentrated too much on the spot where his sides connected with his stomach to be a coincidence. The word died in the air just as Hero’s bouncy snickers got even bouncier and even snickery, Sunny’s affirmative hum instead filling the room.

“Great!”

“Don’t!” Hero managed to slip in between his chuckles, opening a watery eye just to face the one thousand watts smirk of his younger brother, a smirk full of promises of danger and his very immediate doom. His brain run though arguments to find anything, anything promising enough to discourage Kel from helping Sunny but all he got was the same mantra of “it tickles it tickles it ticklesitreallytickles” that scrambled his thoughts any time that wiggly fingers even looked at his direction. 

“I’m going to-” Wheeze. 

“I can’t-” Yelp. 

“When I-” A hiccup. More airy giggles.

Finally, he acquiesced, accepting his fate. “Plehehehease.”

“You’re tickling his sides? Nice idea, Sunny! That is a very good spot.” Kel carelessly threw his bag somewhere on the floor running to sit right at his brother’s sides, taking full advantage of the situation where Hero couldn’t scold him for that. “But you have to see his reactions when I tickle his legs! It’s like a super secret spot that can get him crazy every single time!”

Hero actually jumped when a hand lifted his leg, a few half-heartedly kicks with no real effort showing his struggle as he shook his head in protest.

“He always gets all squirmy when I do that but he never actually tells me to stop.” Kel ‘whispered’ (which, for Kel’s standard, was a lowered shout). “Even when he kicks me it’s so light that I can barely feel it. I think that he really doesn’t mind being tickled but I don’t tell him that I know or he would be really embarrassed.”

Sunny seriously nodded in understanding. Hero wondered if his face was trying to melt with how hot it was. Maybe if he tried enough he could be able to get that invisibility power he always wanted as a kid.

He kicked again. 

“Watch this.” Kel whispered to Sunny, who decided to stop his own attack so the taller could get some interrupted oxygen. Two sets of watchful eyes turned in Hero’s direction. “Ha! This one wasn’t even close, Hero. Try again!” And then Kel’s hand found his calf and began kneading.

The force of the crackle that was fished from his throat made Hero shoot his head backwards, arms failing around for a couple of seconds before he fell back on the floor, quiet, fast and impossible to hide began dancing around in the room like a sweet melody.

“Ok, ok!” Kel, like the little demon he is, laughed together with him. “Now you just need to do this and…” His fingers crawled a few inches closer to his knee, attacking the spot with squeezes and pinches non stop. A snort shot in the air. And another. And another. And another. “Tcharam!! A snorty piggie coming right up.”

“Kehehehel! Don’t!”

“Make me.” Kel raspberried at him, suddenly stopping the banter when he saw his neighbor moving like he was snatching something out of thin air. “Eh? Did you catch a mosquito?”

Sunny shook his head, a grin on his face. Hero turned his attention to him as well when the boy repeated the gesture.

“I am catching Hero’s snorts.”

“Ohohoho my gohohod.” Sunny telegraphed his movements enough that when the oldest’s protest began disappearing in a wheezy crackle he was already “snatching” it from the air. “Stohohohop!”

“Ah! I get it! But you can’t have only his snorts, Sunny. Look! I can make him do other sounds too.”

Suddenly there were scritchess and scratches worming their way on the extremely, awfully, horribly ticklish skin under his knee, giving every inch of it a special attention as more and more silly sounds fell in flocks from his lips.

“There is a giggle!”

“And a yelp!”

“Quick, catch this squeak, it’s already floating away.”

As Kel and Sunny kept their play pretend, Hero started to feel like he was going to explode, and, in an unexpected bound of energy the flew forward and catched Kel’s hands, holding them with a triumphant grin - which was cracking at the corners with leftover chuckles, it’s true, but still - as he stared down at the brother in front of him.

“Heyyy, Hero.” Kel smiled nervously. “I, huh, er, uh…”

“Hi, Kel.” He was careful enough to put a playful growl at the end of the younger’s name. “Missed your old friend, the Tickle Monster?”

“Eek! Aaaaah!! He is going to tickle me! Sunny!”

“Don’t worry, the Tickle Monster has two hands. One for each ticklish boOOOY!”

A sensation exploded across his senses. A buzzing that began in the back of his neck and spread like a tickly electricity across all his nerves, teasing his ears, dancing on his chin, zig zagging over his spine and humming over his torso.

“Yes! Get him, Sunny! More raspberries until the Tickle Monster is defeated!”

Quickly another raspberry followed the first, and then another and another over and over again, all of them unfairly attacking his unprotected neck. For a moment Hero lost himself in uncontrollable belly laughter, in smiles, in airy snickers, teetery titters and in a maddening sensation that made everything else but the constant idea that “It tickles!” disappear from his mind in a blink.

After some time, he was tapping the floor, happy tears running on his cheeks and a wheezy “enohohohough” flying from his lips as the tickling went away. Sunny running to stay at Kel’s side as his friend called him for a winning high five.

“We did it. We defeated him!” Kel’s excited voice made amusement fill his chest. Kids are so fun nowadays. “Your raspberry attack was a good idea.”

Breathe in. Breathe out. Giggle giggle giggle.

“But, eh, why were we tickling Hero?”

At this, Hero’s head shoot upwards, body slowly unfolding from the defensive ball it tried to mimic to watch Sunny with an equally curious gaze.

The shortest eyes glanced at his form for a bit, but before Hero could think anything out of it (was he going to tell-) Sunny just shrugged.

Silence.

“Ok! Hey, Sunny, since you’re here, we should play a game!”

Their neighbor grinned, just the tiniest tiny bit. 

Hero wondered if he, as a good older brother, should warn Kel.

“Do you have any idea of a good one?”

But nah. Hero sighed - a mix of relief and a calm contentment that spilled from his soul and filled his heart. He would let them have their fun.

[discountalien-pancake]

Why are people being so fucking weird about demanding reblogs of polls? No one owes you publicity??? And on that note, nobody owes you reblogs for anything else either!! Liking something and scrolling past is literally not an insult, and yall need to get over yourselves, my god.

[candlebel]

I cared. I still do. I still think of you and I still cry over you. You were importat to me. You still are.

[tarpitbell]

11:23

I'm a damn leech. That's all I am

[tiddiesoutwhenthetisout]

i made a

here's some screenshots of patroclus being embrrassing (but who can blame him in this situation tbh):

here's a link

here's the overall in case you need it:

[lucy-moderatz]

I'm not worried about you and Cory, or me and Cory, or you being irreversibly screwed up. Maggie, you've been like this since we were kids. And all I'm thinking is, now that you're aware of it, and that it hurts people's feelings sometimes, maybe it's time to get on with life, and commit to someone of your own.

[pollenallergie]

billy knight is not just an ass man… he also loves titties. if you ask him to choose between the two, whether he likes either one better than the other, he simply won’t be able to choose. he loves ‘em both. truthfully, when it comes to you, he can’t really choose a favourite body part at all because, to him, each and every part of your body is just so wonderful. billy honestly believes he could write sonnets about how lovely your body is.

no, even more than that, billy could write innumerable sonnets and endlessly wax poetic about how lovely you are as a whole and about how lovely each individual part of you is. he truly believes he could dedicate a sonnet to each and every lovely part of you.

why? because billy adores you, he treasures all of you — even your imperfections, because they make you more real. you’re not some fantasy of what a person could ideally be, you’re the real thing, and, to him you’re infinitely more amazing than any fantasy could ever be.

[dbphantom]

you know if you guys voted for stretch armstrong i probably would have shut up a lot sooner tonight